1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the moving and transportation of bedridden persons and patients in hospitals, homes and nursing homes and more particularly, to the transportation of patients from one location in a bed to another, from the bed to a wheelchair or dolly and back to the bed and from a dolly to an x-ray table or the like and back, as the case may require. The patient transport device includes, in a first preferred embodiment, a flat rail bed having spaced, parallel, upturned side rails which receive rollers carried by a seat or body support slidably positioned on the rail bed and designed to overlap and traverse the rail bed as the rollers traverse the rails. A hand support is provided as an optional feature and in a second preferred embodiment, the rail bed is longer and the seat or body support is larger to accommodate the entire body, in order to facilitate movement of persons in a prone position from one support plane to another. In a most preferred aspect of this embodiment of the invention, the rail bed is mounted on hydraulic cylinders to facilitate height adjustment of the body support.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The transportation of bedridden and sick patients in homes, nursing homes, hospitals and clinics from bed to wheelchair and back, or to a transportation dolly and from the dolly to an x-ray table and the like, is commonly done with the aid of several individuals and a blanket or sheet. This method is at best cumbersome, and is sometimes painful, particularly in the case of patients which have just returned from surgery and must be moved from ICU to a dolly, and then to a hospital bed. Considerable discomfort and pain can even be experienced when moving a person from one side of the bed to another, especially immediately following an injury or surgery.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,648,849, dated Aug. 18, 1953, to M. G. Webb et al, discloses an "Invalid Chair for Bathtubs". The device is characterized by a frame formed of a pair of horizontal rails extending transversely over the bathtub, a pair of vertical legs depending from the rail ends which extend outside of the bathtub, connecting bars joining the rails and the legs, a horizontal guide bar with the rails movably engaging the guide bar, a chair, rollers carried by the chair and movably engaging the rails and retaining means holding the chair against movement on the rails.
It is an object of this invention to provide a patient transport device which is characterized by a generally flat rail bed provided with upturned, parallel and spaced rails and a seat slidably disposed on the rail bed and carrying multiple rollers engaging the rails.
Another object of the invention is to provide a patient transport device which can be used in homes, hospitals, nursing homes and like institutions for transporting bedridden, injured and sick patients from one side of the bed to another or from the bed to a wheelchair or to and from other means of transportation such as a dolly, which patient transport device includes a rail bed provided with parallel, spaced, upturned rails and a seat having rollers mounted thereon, the rollers engaging the rails to facilitate slidable movement of the seat along the rail bed in either direction to support and move the patient.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a patient transport device which is designed to relocate a patient lying in a prone position, which device is characterized by a generally flat rail bed having spaced rails at the foot and head thereof and a cooperating supporting member provided with rollers at spaced intervals, with at least some of the rollers engaging the rails, such that the supporting member is slidably mounted on the rail bed for transporting the patient from a bed to a transport dolly, x-ray table or the like.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a device for slidably transporting persons in the seated or prone position from one point to another, which device includes a rail bed of selected size having spaced, generally parallel and upturned rails and a seat or body support of selected size slidably disposed on the rail bed and fitted with axles and cooperating rollers which engage the rails to facilitate sliding movement of the seat or body support from one side of the rail bed to the other.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a patient transport device for transferring a patient from one point to another, which device includes a generally flat rail bed having spaced and generally parallel, upturned rails with a body support slidably positioned on the rail bed and carrying spaced axles with rollers engaging the rails and further including hydraulic cylinders supporting the rail bed for adjusting the height of the body support.